Digital Assets startup Securitize announced it raised a $48 million Series B funding round. The company is best known for its platform that enables the compliant issuance of tokenized securities.
Blockchain Capital and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value co-led the round that includes IDC Ventures, NTT Data and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. NTT Data is developing a security token issuance platform with Securitize and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust issued a tokenized security using its platform.
Unsurprisingly Securitize used its own platform to issue the tokenized stock to investors.
“Our first investment in the blockchain industry is the leading digital asset securities firm, Securitize. Securitize is well-recognized for pioneering the securitization of digital asset securities on the blockchain, and for its fully-compliant and fully-digital end-to-end to solution that enables private companies to raise capital, and for investors to find a path to liquidity,” said Pedro Teixeira, Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Tactical Value Investing.
“We make long-term investments in businesses and asset classes that are ahead of the curve. Our investment in Securitize is a sign that we believe in the growth and adoption of digital asset securities.”
While Securitize started off focusing on digital security issuance, it has expanded its offering. It added a secondary market capability by acquiring Distributed Technology Markets (DTM), a U.S. FINRA registered alternative trading system (ATS) and SEC-registered broker-dealer. More recently, it created an asset management division.
To date, it claims to have 300,000 accredited investors signed up to its platform and 150 companies have issued securities using its solution.
Securitize has a wide range of investors, including venture capital firms and investment banks, but also a number of core public blockchain protocols. Its Series A included Tezos, Algo VC and Ripple, and the Series B has additional investment from Ripple plus Ava Labs. The blockchains are keen to see security token issuances on their networks.
While the funding round also boasted a number of returning investors, it did not include some of the highest profile Series A investors, Santander Innoventure, Nomura, SBI and Sony Financial Ventures. Nomura and SBI have invested in the Japanese security token platform BOOSTRY.
BOOSTRY is a good example of just how many solutions are targeting this space. Others include Tokeny, Tokensoft, Vertalo, Lab 577’s DASL and ADDX (formerly iStox), to name but a few.
